STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The No. 19 UW-Stevens Point men's basketball team faces its fourth ranked opponent in eight games this season when it hosts fifth-ranked St. Thomas on Tuesday evening.

THE BASICS
Who: No. 5 St. Thomas (6-1) at No. 19 UW-Stevens Point (4-3)
When: Tuesday, Dec. 12 – 7 p.m.
Where: Stevens Point, Wis. – Bennett Court at Quandt Fieldhouse

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LAST TIME OUT
UW-Stevens Point recovered from an eight-point deficit early in the second half by shooting 55.6 percent from the field after halftime in a 64-53 win over Lawrence on Saturday afternoon at Bennett Court at Quandt Fieldhouse. The Pointers outscored the Vikings 26-6 over a 13-minute stretch in the second half after trailing 39-31 with 16:43 to go to record their seventh consecutive win in the series.

Sean McGann (Baraboo, WI/Baraboo) scored 14 of his game-high 20 points in the second half and Ethan Bublitz (Jackson, WI/Kettle Moraine Lutheran) added 15 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two steals in the win. After the duo scored 26 first-half points, the Pointers held Lawrence's Jamie Nikitas and Jeremy Stephani to 2-for-16 from the field in the second half.

Earlier in the week, North Central (Ill.) got double-doubles from Alex Sorenson and Erwin Henry to defeat UW-Stevens Point 63-49 in Naperville, Ill. on Wednesday evening. Sorenson registered 20 points and 12 rebounds, while Henry had 18 points and 10 boards for the Cardinals, who held the Pointers to 27.6 percent shooting on the night. Stephen Pelkofer (Hales Corner, WI/Whitnall) led UWSP with a season-high 19 points.

CHALLENGING THEMSELVES EARLY
Tuesday night's game against St. Thomas is UW-Stevens Point's fourth game against a ranked team already this season. The Pointers are 1-2 in the first three games, defeating No. 15 St. Olaf 68-65 on Nov. 18 before falling to No. 16 Hope 68-56 on Nov. 21 and No. 1 Augustana (Ill.) on Dec. 5.

UW-Stevens Point's seven opponents so far this season are a combined 31-16 (.660) entering the week. The three teams that defeated the Pointers are a combined 14-4 (.778).

UWSP VS. RANKED TEAMS
Since the start of the 2007-08 season, UW-Stevens Point has played 50 games against top-25 teams and is 32-18 in those games, including a 17-6 mark at home. The Pointers have won 13 of their last 15 home games against ranked teams.

UW-Stevens Point is 19-12 all-time against teams ranked inside the top 10 and has won three of its last four games against top-10 opposition.

WINNING THE TURNOVER BATTLE
UW-Stevens Point leads the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.14). The Pointers rank third in the country, committing just 9.6 turnovers per game this season. The Tommies are averaging just 10.4 turnovers per game, which ranks 15th nationally. The two teams combined for just six turnovers (UWSP – 4, UST – 2) in last season's meeting.

IN THE POLLS | D3HOOPS.COM TOP 25
UW-Stevens Point is ranked No. 19 by D3hoops.com this week and is ranked for the 49th consecutive week. St. Thomas moved up one spot to No. 5 this week and has been ranked between fourth and sixth all season.

ABOUT ST. THOMAS | HOME | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS
St. Thomas enters the week with a 6-1 record with its lone loss coming at home to Carleton 67-66 on Dec. 5. Since the loss, the Tommies routed Macalester 78-53 at home and won 67-54 at UW-River Falls on Saturday afternoon. All six UST wins this season have come by double figures and the Tommies are 4-0 in non-conference play.

Taylor Montero, Grant Shaeffer, Cortez Tillman and Ryan Saarela all average between 13.1 and 15.1 points per game. The quartet have combined to score 388 of St. Thomas' 540 points (71.9 percent) this season. No other UST player averages more than 4.8 points per game.

Montero leads UST in scoring (15.1 ppg) and has scored at least 11 points in every game this season. Shaeffer has scored at least nine points in all seven games and averages 13.7 points per game. Tillman, last season's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Sixth Man of the Year, averages 13.4 points per game and is shooting 46.7 percent from behind the arc. Saarela averages a double-double of 13.1 points and 10.0 rebounds a game.

Entering the season, St. Thomas' 1,605 victories in 108 seasons were the third-most by any Division III program. The Tommies have won the MIAC title, made an NCAA Tournament appearances and won at least 20 games in each of the last 10 seasons.

St. Thomas has scored at least 66 points in all seven of its games this season and has topped 75 on five occasions. The Tommies are averaging 77.1 points per game this season.

THE COACHES
Bob Semling is in his 11th season as the head coach at UW-Stevens Point and has won four national championships with the Pointers. He led the Pointers to the 2010 and 2015 national championships as a head coach and was an assistant on the back-to-back national title teams of 2004 and 2005. Semling has a career record of 246-57 (.812), including a 134-26 mark in WIAC play. His .818 career winning percentage entering this season was the highest among active NCAA Division III coaches and ranks fourth all-time at all divisions among coaches with a minimum of 10 seasons as head coach. He is a two-time D3hoops.com and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) National Coach of the Year (2010 and 2015) and a five-time WIAC Coach of the Year.

This season is John Tauer's fifth as the head coach at St. Thomas and he has compiled an overall record of 104-20 (.839). The Tommies have won at least 22 games and MIAC championships in each of Tauer's previous four seasons. He became the first MIAC coach to sweep conference and playoff championships in each of his first two seasons as head coach. Tauer is also the lone individual in the MIAC to have played in, been an assistant coach and been a head coach in the Division III Final Four. Tauer was inducted into the St. Thomas Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001 and ranks among UST's top-15 all-time scorers and rebounders.

SERIES NOTES
St. Thomas leads the all-time series with UW-Stevens Point by a 6-3 margin since the teams first met in 1974. The Pointers and Tommies have alternated wins in the last five meetings with UST winning three times and UWSP twice.

Last season, No. 6 St. Thomas edged No. 20 UW-Stevens Point 68-66 on Dec. 20 in St. Paul. The second half featured 11 lead changes and six ties but Pelkofer missed a potential game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer.

Outside of a neutral-court meeting in the 2011 NCAA Tournament, the home team has won each of the seven meetings between the two programs. UW-Stevens Point is 3-0 all-time at home against St. Thomas.

Six of the last eight meetings between the two teams have been decided by seven points or less.